by Thinus Ferreira

In the second episode of the 4th season of MasterChef SA on M-Net (DStv 101) it was instantly clear that MasterChef SA judge Gregory Czarnecki’s duck dish would be the most difficult to get right out of the three judges’ dishes – which led to contestant Mohammed getting axed.

In Tuesday evening’s episode, the contestants were divided up between the three judges and had to prepare one of their dishes that revealed a bit about themselves, with judge Zola Nene that said they were looking forward “to tasting my memories through your cooking”.

There was Gregory Czarnecki’s “duck a la Orange” – a simple yet very difficult recipe to execute with the secret in the sauce – with duck fat confit potatoes and sultana pancakes.

Zola Nene’s “isinkwa sombilla” had steamed mielie bread, cheese sausage and apple chutney that was made by her maternal grandmother.

Judge Justine Drake’s dish was an Asian noodle broth of ramen, fragrant meat and vegetables.

Several of the contestants mentioned to the judges that they felt like failures when it came time to bring their dish to the judges’ table.

Tasnim came close to tears, telling them that “It fell apart. It’s really not what I wanted to put in front of you, I mean no disrespect.”

She made Justine’s noodle dish – and what a surprise: She got one of the highest scores and had nothing to be worried about.

Mohammed said “I feel angry and I feel embarrassed and I feel ashamed to bring something like this forward”.

In the end Onezwa, Masedi and Mohammed rounded out the bottom three, with Mohammed who got sent home after Gregory said that his duck dish “didn’t bring the emotion that I was looking for”.

First time cooking duck

“Following on from the introductory episode and the challenge of preparing a starter, Tuesday’s second episode is where the judges were introduced to DStv subscribers and the contestants,” says content producer Errieda du Toit.

“Each of the three judges presented a definitive dish that says something about them. The contestants had to draw a card to see which dish they had to prepare, and they had to replicate it exactly.”

“For most of them it was the first time eating duck, cooking duck – the daylights frightened out of them having to make duck a la Orange.”